Featured Link

Featured Link: World Book Trade (e-books, awards, videos)

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Reading, the Healthy Option

Reading, the Healthy Option: A one day conference for anyone interested in the links between reading activites and health. Presentations will include Get into Reading, RAYs (Reading and You), Books on Prescription, reading groups and other bibliotherapy projects and activities - 18 April 2007 - Birmingham, UK

2007 Book Sense Book of the Year Award winners announced

The American Booksellers Association has announced the winners of the 2007 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards, recognizing those titles independent booksellers most enjoyed handselling during the past year, as voted by the owners and staff of ABA member bookstores

CIC Library Conference presentations available

Presentations from this year's CIC Library Conference "Getting in the Flow", held on March 19-20, 2007 at the University of Minnesota's Hubert H. Humphrey Center, are now available online

Mid-Atlantic Library Futures Conference

Mid-Atlantic Library Futures Conference: "For two days in May, two hundred librarians will meet with visionaries from the disciplines of anthropology, architecture, public policy and science to discuss the future of libraries. By looking outside of the library, we seek to explore unique ideas that will make the difference. Imagine merging information, inspiration and imagination to transform the way we look at our future. And then working together to build a solid foundation that will serve as a concrete plan with which to move forward. Be a part of this exclusive conclave and share your perspectives on how we can affect the future of libraries" - May 7-8 - Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA

Funding worth more than 15m pounds announced

Over 80 projects, totalling more than 15m pounds, have been successful in the latest round of funding under JISC's capital programme

2007 ProQuest-SIRS State and Regional Achievement Award

Four Connecticut librarians, known as the Connecticut John Does, are the 2007 recipients of the ProQuest-SIRS State and Regional Achievement Award presented by the American Library Association Intellectual Freedom Round Table. The award consists of a citation and $1,000 and recognizes successful and effective intellectual freedom coalitions or committees that have made a contribution to the freedom to read or to the intellectual freedom environment in which libraries function

Friday, March 30, 2007

The Friday Brain-teaser from Xrefer

The Friday Brain-teaser from Xrefer - this week: Slavery. Answers here

1. What was the surname of the Englishman (first name William) who led the movement to abolish the slave trade?
2. The first African slaves were introduced into Virginia in 1619 by Dutch traders: true or false?
3. Was the "Slave Coast" in Africa or the West Indies?
4. Who wrote the abolitionist novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin"?
5. In describing the slave trade, what was "the middle passage"?
6. What is a "slave bangle"?
7. In the United States before the Civil War, slavery was legal in how many states: 6, 15 or 33?
8. What is a "slave ant"?
9. Is Slave River in Canada, the USA or Jamaica?
10. Around 1514, who carved two statues called "The Dying Slave" and "The Rebellious Slave"?

Doing Digital: using digital resources in the arts and humanities

Doing Digital: using digital resources in the arts and humanities - 9-12 September 2007 - Dartington College of Art, UK

ESSIR 2007

ESSIR 2007: 6th European Summer School in Information Retrieval - 27—31 August 2007 - Glasgow, Scotland

TIR-07

TIR-07: 4th International Workshop on Text-Based Information Retrieval - 3-7 September 2007 - Regensburg, Germany

CLIR Issues - Number 56

CLIR Issues - Number 56 March/April 2007 - is now available from the Council on Library and Information Resources

Co-Action Publishing

"Co-Action Publishing is dedicated to Open Access, both through publishing an in-house list of journals and books and by partnering with others to help them realize their own Open Access goals. The advancement of science ranks above all other publishing motives for us"

Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification: Criteria and Checklist

The Center for Research Libraries and RLG Programs, a unit of OCLC Programs and Research, have announced the publication of Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification: Criteria and Checklist, a new 93-page report that establishes a baseline definition of a trustworthy digital repository and lays out the components that must be considered and evaluated as a part of that determination

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Copac: New Interface, New Database, New Web pages

Copac has introduced a new version of its academic and national library catalogue

ISKO UK

ISKO UK is a not-for-profit scientific/professional association with the objective of promoting research and communication in the domain of knowledge organization, within the broad field of information science and related disciplines

Lectrix

Lectrix is a powerful online tool designed to help students read Greek and Latin texts in the original language by providing them with all the information required actively to understand a text at the click of a mouse, including commentaries, dictionary, parser and translation. From Cambridge University Press

Galaxy British Book Awards 2007 winners

The winners of the Galaxy British Book Awards 2007 have been announced

Sounds Familiar? Accents and Dialects of the UK

"Do you call a 'bread roll' a cob, batch, bread cake, barm cake or scuffler? How do you pronounce the words cup and plant? And are you sitting or sat at this computer? The UK is a rich landscape of regional accents and dialects, each evidence of our society's continuity and change, our local history and our day-to-day lives. Sounds Familiar? Accents and Dialects of the UK, aimed at A-Level English students across the UK, captures and celebrates the diversity of spoken English in the second half of the twentieth century" - The British Library

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week - March 29, 2007

Consultation Events: National Occupational Standards for the Libraries, Archives and Information Services Workforce

"Do you have an interest in the future of the libraries, archives, records management and information services workforce? Are you engaged in workforce development? If so, LLUK would like to invite you to participate in the development of new National Occupational Standards" - various locations in the UK, April to May 2007

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Blogs & Social Media Forum 2

Blogs & Social Media Forum 2 will examine the impact of social media and enterprise 2.0 by combining expert industry insight with real life case studies to provide you with the latest thinking from leading experts in this space - June 2-5 2007 - London, UK

Internet Resources Newsletter - Issue 149

Internet Resources Newsletter - Issue 149 - April 2007 - edited by Roddy MacLeod, Heriot-Watt University, is now available

ALADN Online Marketplace

The ALADN Online Marketplace is an alternative virtual marketplace for presenting electronic versions of development, marketing, and public relations materials in pdf format. In addition to sharing documents and publications, participants are able to comment on each others work and are even able share in developing page definitions. The site will be made available and administered until the end of August 2007, compliments of the University of South Florida Libraries

Bloomsbury Conference on E-Publishing and E-Publications

The Centre for Publishing and the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies at UCL is presenting the inaugural Bloomsbury Conference on E-Publishing and E-Publications, to be held at UCL's Bloomsbury Campus on 28-29 June 2007. The theme for this first year is "Books and Journals: Models in Flux"

Consultation on WellcomeFilm

"Consultation on a proposal to include WellcomeFilm (a digital collection of historical medical film material sourced from the Wellcome Library) in the Film & Sound Online Catalogue and its potential value to research, teaching and learning. JISC Collections would be very grateful if you and your colleagues could take some time to consider WellcomeFilm and send us your feedback on your experience of the resource". Response required by 15 June 2007

Captain Pearl R. Nye: Life on the Ohio and Erie Canal

The Library of Congress's American Folklife Center has announced a new presentation, Captain Pearl R. Nye: Life on the Ohio and Erie Canal, now available on the Library's American Memory Web site. "Captain Pearl R. Nye: Life on the Ohio and Erie Canal" captures the culture and music of the men, women, and children who worked and lived along the Ohio and Erie Canal. Nye, who was born and raised on a canal boat, never lost his love of the "Big Ditch." After the canal closed permanently in 1913, he devoted considerable time and energy to preserving its songs and stories

Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Report

Readex has announced that it will launch a Web-based edition of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Report in Fall 2007. "The Daily Report, issued by the U.S. Foreign Broadcast Information Service, has been the fundamental record of political and historical open source intelligence for the United States government for nearly 75 years"

ALSC ChildTech Wiki

ALSC ChildTech Wiki: "This is a wiki of the Association for Library Service to Children, Children and Technology Committee. Our committee's purpose is to educate and encourage youth librarians to be leaders on technology issues in their institutions; to identify technology issues impacting youth librarians and to disseminate information to the membership on these issues through programs, training opportunities, and publications both traditional and electronic..."

Workshop on Contextualized Attention Metadata

Workshop on Contextualized Attention Metadata: personalized access to digital resources: part of the ACM IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries - June 17-23 2007 – Vancouver, Canada

AASL e-Academy

The American Association of School Librarians e-Academy will offer three new continuing education programs starting on April 23, 2007. The courses will be offered via a partnership with the University of North Texas project LE@D. These professional development opportunities are offered as either facilitated programs or self-paced courses

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Citizendium out of beta

Citizendium is out of beta and is open for general reading

Prenax and Basch Subscriptions join forces

"Prenax Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the global subscription agency Prenax Global, has acquired the shares of Basch Subscriptions Inc., based in Concord, New Hampshire."

The 2007 Daphne Clarke Seminar

The 2007 Daphne Clarke Seminar: "The World Summit on the Information Society: Possibilities and Challenges for Library and Information Science". Keynote Speaker: Deborah Shorley, University Librarian, University of Sussex - May 14, 2007 - London, UK

Blackwell Books Online platform becomes COUNTER-Compliant

"The platform which hosts Blackwell Reference Online and The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology Online has now been certified as providing COUNTER-Compliant usage data. Blackwell Books Online adheres to Release 1 of the COUNTER Code of Practice for Books and Reference Works. The usage reports, which are always up-to-date and can be accessed any time, show the number of successful section requests by month and title, turnaways by month, and total searches and sessions by month"

Monday, March 26, 2007

Foundation Degree in Book Conservation

Camberwell College of Arts has announced the start of the first UK Foundation Degree (FdA) in Book Conservation. The course, run by Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts, is a new Foundation degree, and will start in October 2007. The course has been designed by conservation course leaders at Camberwell, in close collaboration with the British Library, and staff from other book conservation departments working in major cultural institutions

A National Information Literacy Framework

The first draft of the (Scottish) National Information Literacy Framework is now available

Museums and the Web 2007

Museums and the Web 2007 - April 11-14, 2007 - San Francisco, California, USA. The first of the papers to be presented are now available on-line. Follow the links from the speakers list or click on any highlighted title in an Abstract to view the full paper text. All papers will be available on-line before the meeting

SirsiDynix International

SirsiDynix has announced that it is creating SirsiDynix International and placing oversight of its operations outside North America under the new division. SirsiDynix customer support, sales and administrative operations in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa and Latin America will be grouped into SirsiDynix International

Deep Throat materials from Woodward and Bernstein's Watergate Papers open for research at Ransom Center

The University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center has opened materials from Watergate journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's on Mark Felt, the source known as Deep Throat, to researchers, scholars and the public. A selection of the Deep Throat materials can be viewed in an online exhibition, and portions of the materials from the Felt file will be displayed on the first floor of the Ransom Center from March 23 to April 8

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Introduction to WebJunction Learning

Introduction to WebJunction Learning: An introduction to the courses and resources WebJunction has to offer online learners, trainers, creators and managers - April 4, 2007

Emerald Management First

Emerald Group Publishing Limited has announced the release of Emerald Management First, "...an online resource tailored to the specific needs of managers in daily business situations. Designed for quick and easy access during everyday work conditions, Emerald Management First draws upon the world's leading management research to bring articles, case studies, and management tools directly to the desktop"

International Calendar of Information Science Conferences

A periodic reminder to post your event and look for conferences around the world in the International Calendar of Information Science Conferences - "If you work in the information sciences and related disciplines (libraries, archives, museums, information and communication technology, telecommunications, etc.), be sure to stay up to date on the latest opportunities to learn and share your work throughout the world by regularly checking (RSS available) and posting your events in the Calendar"

NISO's Shared E-Resource Understanding (SERU) Working Group

NISO's Shared E-Resource Understanding (SERU) Working Group is "charged with developing Recommended Practices to be used to support a new mechanism for publishers to sell e-resources without licenses if they feel their perception of risk has been adequately addressed by current law and developing norms of behavior"

International Digital Preservation Systems Survey

"This survey is intended to provide an overview of digital preservation system (DPS) implementation. DPS is defined here as an assembly of computer hardware, software and policies equivalent to a TDR (trusted digital repository) 'whose mission is to provide reliable, long-term access to managed digital resources to its designated community, now, and in the future'. The survey was produced by the Getty Research Institute departments of Digital Resource Management and Library Information Systems, and will be distributed primarily among members of the Digital Library Federation (DLF). Results will be shared at the DLF Spring Forum, April 23-25, 2007, and with all respondents who provide contact information. Please respond by March 30, 2007"

How clean are your books?

How clean are your books? - Surface dirt on library and archive materials is unsightly, unhealthy and provides nourishment for pests. It is often an indication of poor standards of collection care. The NPO has organised a training day to demonstrate how dirt damages collections and how it can be tackled using a variety of methods - National Preservation Office Training Day - 30 April 2007 - London, UK

DLF Aquifer receives Mellon Grant

The Digital Library Federation has received an $816,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a project designed to make distributed digital collections easier for scholars to use. The project, DLF Aquifer Development for Interoperability Across Scholarly Repositories: American Social History Online, will implement schemas, data models, and technologies to enable scholars to use digital collections as one in a variety of local environments

Daily Mail First Novel Award

The Daily Mail (UK)has teamed up with Transworld Publishers to launch the Daily Mail First Novel Award. Transworld will offer the winning author a publishing contract of 30,000 pounds and publish the winning book in April 2008. The award will be judged by bestselling Transworld authors Joanne Harris and Lee Child; Jane Mays, the Literary Editor of the Daily Mail; Benedicte Page, the Book News Editor of The Bookseller, and Francesca Liversidge, Senior Publishing Director of Transworld. The award will be for an original, previously unpublished debut work of fiction on any subject or genre, from romance to crime, science fiction to adventure. The closing date for the competition is 2 July 2007

Blackwell Book Services acquires Houtschild International Booksellers

"In a move that brings together two well-respected library book suppliers, Blackwell Book Services and Houtschild International Booksellers announce that they have joined forces"

CJCLS/EBSCO Learning Resources Awards

EBSCO Information Services and the Association of College and Research Libraries have announced the winners of the 2007 Community and Junior College Libraries Section Learning Resources Awards

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Wiley InterScience Library Newsletter March 2007

Wiley InterScience Library Newsletter March 2007 is now available

Biblio Tech Review March 2007

The March 2007 issue of Biblio Tech Review is now available

2007 New York Book Festival call for entries

"The 2007 New York Book Festival has issued a call for entries to its annual program celebrating books that deserve greater recognition from the world's publishing capital. The 2007 New York Book Festival will consider published, self-published and independent publisher non-fiction, fiction, children's books, teenage, how-to, audio/spoken word, comics, poetry, e-books, wild card (anything goes!), science fiction, romance and biography/autobiography works. Books published on or after Jan. 1, 2003 are eligible for the awards"

J.R.R. Tolkien: The Children of Hurin

"HarperCollins hopes to tap into a 15-million-strong UK fan base for Lord of the Rings as it publishes The Children of Hurin, the first complete book by J R R Tolkien since The Silmarillion was published in 1977. The book, published on 17 April as an 18.99 pounds hardback and a 60 pounds deluxe slipcased edition, has been put together from Tolkien's drafts by his son Christopher. It will feature eight paintings and 25 pencil sketches by Alan Lee, who illustrated editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings" - The Bookseller

Cites & Insights 7:4 (April 2007)

Cites & Insights 7:4 (April 2007) is now available for downloading

"Digital dark ages" haunt archivists

"Archives, the sum of the documents created in the routine course of activities, are sources of memory, information and action. They play an essential role in the development of society. Archives are a unique, precious and irreplaceable heritage transmitted from generation to generation. That's the opening of a declaration made by the roughly 600 archivists of Quebec. They want you to sign it to acknowledge that what they do, and what we help them do, is important"

EDUCAUSE Review March/April 2007

EDUCAUSE Review March/April 2007 is now available

18th Century parliamentary publications project

"Launched on March 23 2007 at the House of Commons, the BOPCRIS 18th Century parliamentary publications project (based at the University of Southampton) provides the Uk academic community with access to 1400 volumes of core 18th century official Parliamentary publications that include Parliamentary Papers, Bills, registers and Journals. By making previously obscure materials accessible, it releases potential to reassess the role of the 18th Century parliaments at a critical time of change"

2007 Melvil Dewey Medal

Sarah Thomas, PhD, university librarian at Cornell University Library, is the 2007 recipient of the American Library Association Melvil Dewey Medal, which recognizes distinguished service to the profession of librarianship

2007 David Cohen Prize winner

Northern Irish poet Derek Mahon has been awarded the David Cohen Prize for his lifetime's achievement in literature. Past recipients of the 40,000 pounds award include Harold Pinter, Doris Lessing, William Trevor and Muriel Spark

Friday, March 23, 2007

The Friday Brain-teaser from Xrefer

The Friday Brain-teaser from Xrefer - this week: Numbers. Answers here

1. What number was used as the title of a 1995 film starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as detectives on the track of a serial killer?
2. "Fourscore" is another word for which number?
3. What is the name for numbers written like letters - for example, V for five and X for ten?
4. What is the "Number of the Beast"?
5. In Shakespeare's "As You Like It", how many "ages of man" are there according to Jaques?
6. The lowest temperature that can theoretically be attained is equal to minus 273.15 degrees centigrade. What phrase is normally used to describe this temperature?
7. In the expression "E numbers", what does the "E" stand for?
8. What term is used for a number (like 2, 3, 5, 7 and 11) that can be divided only by 1 and itself, that is, having no other factors?
9. Name four of the "five senses".
10. What is the name for the sequence or series of numbers (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc.) in which each term is the sum of the preceding two terms?

Digital Document Quarterly

Digital Document Quarterly Volume 6, Number 1, is now available from HMG Consulting

LLRX.com March 18, 2007

LLRX.com March 18, 2007 update is now online. LLRX.com is a unique, free Web journal dedicated to providing legal, library, IT/IS, marketing and administrative professionals with the most up-to-date information on a wide range of Internet research and technology-related issues, applications, resources and tools, since 1996

Balanced Libraries: Thoughts on Continuity and Change by Walt Crawford

Balanced Libraries: Thoughts on Continuity and Change by Walt Crawford - "...my contribution to the ongoing set of discussions, experiments and changes in libraries and librarianship that sometimes carries the name 'Library 2.0.'"

Metadata essentials

Metadata essentials: This one-day course is designed to introduce the concepts and terminology of metadata and to equip participants with an understanding of metadata as it relates to library and information work in a wider context. The course also shows how current thinking on metadata will affect cataloguing practice in the future - 19 September 2007 - London, UK

2007 Patterson Copyright Award

Peter Jaszi is the 2007 recipient of the L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award: In Support of Users' Rights. Jaszi is Professor of Law and Director of the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic at American University's Washington College of Law. The award will be presented at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC, on Monday, June 25, 2007

Index Data launches Open Content service

The Open Content service consists of SRU and Z39.50 enabled indexes for some of the most important open content resources: Ebooks from the Open Content Alliance and Project Gutenberg, Wikipedia, the Open Directory

Thursday, March 22, 2007

MetaArchive Distributed Digital Preservation Workshop

MetaArchive Distributed Digital Preservation Workshop: Provides information and training for institutions that seek to build or join distributed digital preservation networks based on the LOCKSS software - May 30-June 1, 2007 - Atlanta, GA, USA

hagsharlotsheroines summer competition for writers

Theme: 21st century woman: fast and loose. Short Story (maximum 2,500 words). Non Fiction (maximum 2,500 words). Poetry (maximum 80 lines). Deadline 31st July 2007

10th Annual Open Forum for Metadata Registries

10th Annual Open Forum for Metadata Registries - Jul 11, 2007 - New York, USA

NEMLA announces its new website

"Of particular interest at the new NEMLA site is the Directory of Music Libraries and Collections in New England, which is now neatly formatted into a searchable database full of bells and whistles. Among these are direct links to library web pages, Google mapping of addresses, and the ability to submit updates and corrections to your own institutions' entries online - even adding a new library to the database when necessary. You can find the link to the directory under Publications, and may search for a library by name, address, staff names, etc."

ICDIM 2007

ICDIM 2007: Second International Conference on Digital Information Management - October 28-31, 2007 - Lyon, France

FreePint Newsletter 226

FreePint Newsletter 226 - 22 March, 2007 - now available

Help design the New "World Book"

"World Book Encyclopedia is asking students, teachers, and others to help design its 2008 edition—and enter to win a set of the new encyclopedia. Word Book began supplementing its classic leather binding in 1999 with its trademark Spinescape, a method of printing an image across the spine of its 22-volume set. This marks the first time readers will choose the encyclopedia's Spinescape" - From School Library Journal

AIRway Project brings together linking services and institutional repositories

"Librarians and information technology professionals in Japan and the United States have developed a new way to combine institutional repositories with library linking services that could change the way researchers access scholarly information. The development, reported in the March/April issue of D-Lib Magazine, enables library users to access locally stored research articles when they follow citations in scientific journals or indexed in databases. The AIRway Project has received support from the research and development program of the 'Next-Generation Scientific Information Resources Infrastructure' of the National Institute of Informatics in Japan"

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week - March 22, 2007

16th BOBCATSSS symposium

"The goal of the BOBCATSSS 2008 symposium is to explore access to information for everybody from the technical, political, legal, social and economical point of view. The symposium would like to identify the existing barriers in accessing information and to offer an overview of new concepts, ideas and examples of good practice in order to raise awareness and achieve possible solutions" - January 28-30, 2008 - Zadar, Croatia

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Manitoba Libraries Conference 2007

Manitoba Libraries Conference 2007 - May 7-9 - Winnipeg, Canada

Chronicling America

Chronicling America allows you to search and read newspaper pages from 1900-1910 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program

Library Media Project to close

Library Media Project, which began in 1988, will be closing down on 30 April 2007, after over 18 years assisting U.S. librarians with their media collection development on a wide range of important subjects

BookHints

From AbeBooks: "BookHints are recommendations for similar and related books based on what you're looking for. By clicking on a book title from the Search Results page, you're taken to the Book Details screen where you'll see the BookHints icon letting you know that there are recommended titles. One click on a BookHints title and you're automatically taken to the search results for that book"

No Outsiders

"No Outsiders is a 28-month research project based in primary schools and funded by The Economic and Social Research Council. The project is led by Elizabeth Atkinson and Renée DePalma at the University of Sunderland, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Exeter and the Institute of Education (University of London) and a team of three research assistants. During the course of the project, a team of primary teachers from three areas of the UK will develop ideas and resources to address lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in their own schools and their communities. The outcomes will be disseminated via the Teacher Training Resource Bank, a documentary film and an edited book of teaching ideas. The project started on 1 September 2006 and will run until 31 December 2008. We have a full complement of participants for the current year (September 2006 to July 2007) and are now recruiting participants for the second year of the project (September 2007 to July 2008)"

RSS, Blogs and Wikis

RSS, Blogs and Wikis: tools for dissemination, collaboration and information gathering - July 11 2007 - University of Newcastle, UK

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice latest issue

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice - Vol 2, No 1 (2007) is now available

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Emerald signs German National Licence

Emerald Group Publishing Limited has announced an agreement with the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) which will entitle registered users in Germany to access all Emerald journals that were owned and published between 1st January 1994 and 31st December 2005

Jackson Poetry Prize winner announced

Poets & Writers, Inc. has announced that Elizabeth Alexander is the inaugural recipient of the Jackson Poetry Prize. The $50,000 prize honors an American poet of exceptional talent who has published at least one book of recognized literary merit but has not yet received major national acclaim

TEI@20

TEI@20: 20th Anniversary Text Encoding Initiative Consortium Members' Meeting - 31 October 2007 (pre-conference workshops), 1-3 November 2007 (members meeting) - University of Maryland, College Park, USA

Abolition 200

The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, Awards for All, and 24 Hour Museum have joined in partnership to announce their support of the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade with the launch of the website Abolition200. This will act as the cultural sector's premier website for news of national bicentenary events and activities. Going live on March 19, and managed via the 24 Hour Museum database, the MLA-commissioned site allows you to find out about abolition-related events taking place in local areas. It offers a searchable database of events, news stories and has a special area for teachers and schools. It also highlights funding opportunities for groups that wish to apply for National Lottery money to help fund their commemorative events and activities

OCLC acquires TechAtlas with grant from Gates Foundation

OCLC Online Computer Library Center has acquired TechAtlas technology planning software with a $1.9 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. WebJunction, OCLC's online community where library staff share ideas and use online resources to help them in their work, will further develop this Web-based technology management and planning tool with particular attention to helping public libraries create E-Rate compliant technology plans

This Week in LibraryBlogLand

This Week in LibraryBlogLand - week ending March 18, 2007

Will RDA Be DOA? by Roy Tennant

Will RDA Be DOA? by Roy Tennant for Library Journal: "The rules and guidelines that have guided catalogers for decades are undergoing revision. It's taken for granted that the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, Second Edition (AACR2), are past due for an update in this Internet age. The revision effort began in 1997, but to signal a dramatic departure from AACR2, it was dubbed Resource Description and Access (RDA) in 2005..."

Taylor & Francis Librarians' Newsletter

Taylor & Francis Librarians' Newsletter sixth issue now available

LC hit by $47 million cut in digital preservation funds

From Library Journal: "It sneaked under a lot of people's radar, but the Library of Congress has lost $47 million in promised federal funds for digital preservation efforts, and it's unclear how many projects and programs will be affected. After the February 15 passage of P.L. 110-5, $47 million "of the unobligated balances available for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program" (NDIIPP) was rescinded. "The Library of Congress is in the early stages of evaluating the impact of this rescission, and no decisions have been made on the future of the program, which continues to operate," LC spokesman Matt Raymond told LJ. "We are hopeful that funds may be restored in fiscal year 2008"

2007 LITA/Library Hi Tech Award winner

Priscilla Caplan has been named the winner of the 2007 LITA/Library Hi Tech award for Outstanding Communication in Library and Information Technology. Emerald and the Library and Information Technology Association, a division of the American Library Association, sponsor the award. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in communicating to educate practitioners within the library field in library and information technology. It consists of $1,000 and a certificate of merit

National Park Service: The American Civil War

National Park Service: The American Civil War - Official National Park Service Civil War web site, offering a history of the war, museum exhibits, links to national parks and battlefields, and information on the sesquicentennial of the war (2011-2015)

Monday, March 19, 2007

Encoding Digital Video for Streaming and Network Delivery: Introduction

Encoding Digital Video for Streaming and Network Delivery: Introduction - 18 April, 2007 - London, UK

Classification Practice

Classification Practice: A practical course, for people with some experience in subject indexing for catalogues and databases, on the representation of the subject matter of various types of office and library materials - 18 April 2007 and 8 October 2007 - London, UK

Jack Kerouac Exhibition at The New York Public Library

"Diaries, manuscripts, snapshots, and personal items of Jack Kerouac, the visionary author whose pioneering work helped to established the Beat Movement in the United States, will be on display in Beatific Souls: Jack Kerouac's On the Road, 1957-2007, an exhibition on view at The New York Public Library September 28, 2007 through February 10, 2008. The exhibition coincides with the 50th anniversary of Kerouac's landmark novel, On the Road, which has captured the imagination of several generations and established its author as a major figure in American literature"

2007 ARLIS/NA Conference

2007 ARLIS/NA Conference (Art Libraries of North America) - April 26-30 - Atlanta, USA

College Basketball Newspaper Archive

Search newspaper articles about college basketball in more than 50,000 historical newspaper pages

SirsiDynix introduces "Rome"

"SirsiDynix has announced a new, versatile technology platform that blends the best features from its flagship solution suites to serve the demanding needs of public, academic, K-12 and special libraries, as well as consortia. Code-named "Rome," this platform will integrate solutions for library/consortia management, the user experience and content management"

Movers & Shakers 2007

Movers & Shakers 2007 - The People Shaping the Future of Libraries - from Library Journal

Sunday, March 18, 2007

An introduction to federated searching technology and developments

An introduction to federated searching technology and developments: "This one day conference is aimed at further education library and information. As electronic content and sources of information, provided by academic libraries, become greater and vaster, the need for federated searching technologies has increased. This seminar will introduce delegates to the concepts of federated searching (also known as meta-searching) of library content, and will illustrate some of the current developments and initiatives within this field" - 11 May 2007 - Southport, UK

Open Libraries Podcast Episode 2

Open Libraries Podcast Episode 2: covers how libraries can start to digitize their unique collections. Kevin Dames and Jill Hurst-Wahl wrote an article about copyright and practical considerations in getting started. They join Jay Datema of netConnect, along with Lotfi Belkhir, CEO of Kirtas Technologies, to discuss the important issue of digitization quality

Electronic Publishing Trends & Practices Study

"SNAP has partnered with the nonprofit Angerosa Research Foundation and Stratton Publishing & Marketing Inc. to conduct a cutting-edge industry study for associations. Electronic Publishing Trends and Practices will provide valuable data and insights for association publishers and executives on trends in electronic publishing"

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Metadata Standards and Applications Workshop

Metadata Standards and Applications Workshop: This two-day workshop, sponsored by the CLA Access, Collection and Technical Services Section, is the second course in the series "Cataloging for the 21st Century." The goal of the course is to relate what attendees already know about library catalog metadata to digital library metadata, thereby preparing them to apply their current knowledge to new areas - April 25-26, 2007 - UC Davis, USA

IIPC announces its first general assembly meeting

The International Internet Preservation Consortium, formed in 2003 to foster international collaboration for preserving Internet content for future generations, has announced its first general assembly meeting April 18-20, 2007, at the Bibliotheque nationale de France in Paris, France

Science Tracer Bullet: Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Combustion Processes

Science Tracer Bullet: Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Combustion Processes - This guide lists relevant sources of information on alternative fuel vehicles and includes electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and personal transportation vehicles, as well as the technology of fuel economy and alternative fuels. It also includes advanced autoignition and lean-burn combustion processes for improving engine fuel economy. From The Library of Congress

Digital Preservation News: March 2007

Digital Preservation News: March 2007 is now available online

Rediscover Northern Ireland Programme

Rediscover Northern Ireland Programme: From March through May 2007, scholars and artists will gather at the Library of Congress and other venues in and around Washington, DC, to present and promote Northern Irish arts and culture through the Rediscover Northern Ireland Programme. The May events at the Library of Congress include an exciting and thought-provoking series of concerts and lectures and a special symposium. Together, they promise to highlight and focus attention on the unique geographical, cultural and musical landscape of Northern Ireland - May 2-29, 2007, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA

Library of Congress to offer Junior Fellows Summer Internships

"This summer the Library of Congress, home of the U.S. Copyright Office, is once again offering special 10-week, paid internships to college students. For a stipend of $3,000, Junior Fellows Summer Interns will work full-time, starting on June 4 and ending on August 10, to help locate and itemize uncataloged materials submitted to the office as part of the copyright registration process. In the past, summer interns have identified hundreds of literary, artistic, film and musical gems among the Library's copyright deposits"

The International Journal of Internet Research Ethics

The International Journal of Internet Research Ethics is the first peer-reviewed online journal, dedicated specifically to cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural research on Internet Research Ethics. All disciplinary perspectives, from those in the arts and humanities, to the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences, are reflected in the journal

Friday, March 16, 2007

The Friday Brain-teaser from Xrefer

The Friday Brain-teaser from Xrefer - this week: Science Fiction and Fantasy Fiction. Answers here

1. In the 1890s, who wrote books entitled "The Time Machine" and "The War of the Worlds"?
2. Name the 1979 movie which had Sigourney Weaver as its heroine and included designs by H. R. Giger.
3. Which 1817 novel by Mary Shelley was an early example of fantasy fiction?
4. Who wrote the books "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1864) and "From the Earth to the Moon" (1865)?
5. What were the titles of the two sequels to the film "The Matrix" which both appeared in 2003?
6. What was the name of the malfunctioning computer in the 1968 book and film "2001: A Space Odyssey"?
7. Which US science-fiction television series has achieved cult status since it was created by Gene Roddenberry in 1963?
8. Which Russian-born US author stated "the three laws of robotics" in a 1941 story?
9. In Ray Bradbury's 1953 novel "Fahrenheit 451" - and the 1966 film version - what happens at the temperature of "Fahrenheit 451"?
10. Who wrote the Earthsea quartet and the Hainish future history stories?

Copyright Utopia

Copyright Utopia: Alternative Visions, Methods & Policies - 7th Annual Symposium on Intellectual Property - May 21-23, 2007 - Adelphi, MD, USA

Developing an International Curation and Preservation Training Roadmap

DCC/PLANETS/CASPAR/DPE Joint Workshop on Developing an International Curation and Preservation Training Roadmap - 29-30 March 2007 - Nice, France

IMLS requests proposals to purchase, promote, and distribute a conservation bookshelf

"The Institute of Museum and Library Services invites proposals for a cooperative agreement to purchase and distribute a set of conservation-related books, bibliographies, DVDs, and on-line resources as part of its Connecting to Collections initiative. The cooperator will also mount a promotional campaign about the Connecting to Collections initiative and the Conservation Bookshelf, with special attention to raising awareness and soliciting requests for the bookshelf from small to medium-sized museums, libraries, and archives." Deadline: April 12, 2007

Search Engine Watch Q&A With Ask.com's Gary Price

Gary Price, director of online information resources at Ask.com, in conversation with Eric Enge for Search Engine Watch

The Library + information Show 2007

The Library + information Show 2007 will be held April 18-19 at NEC, Birmingham, UK

Metropolitan Museum and ARTstor announce pioneering initiative to provide digital images to scholars at no charge

"In a new initiative designed to assist scholars with teaching, study, and the publication of academic works, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will distribute, free of charge, high-resolution digital images from an expanding array of works in its renowned collection for use in academic publications. This new service, which is effective immediately, is available through ARTstor, a non-profit organization that makes art images available for educational use"

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week - March 15, 2007

EBSCO Reception Room Subscription Services

EBSCO Reception Room Subscription Services - Provider of special pricing on magazine and newspaper subscriptions for professionals, business owners, and businesses with reception and waiting areas

Thursday, March 15, 2007

New titles added to Xreferplus

The following new titles have recently been added to Xreferplus:

Brewer's Britain and Ireland
Brewer's Curious Titles
BUSINESS: The Ultimate Resource - Dictionary of Business and Management
Chambers Classic Speeches
The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Sixth edition, Houghton Mifflin
Harrap's-Dalloz French-English Law Dictionary

The Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2006 Annual Edition

The Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2006 Annual Edition is now available from Digital Scholarship. Annual editions of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing
Bibliography are PDF files designed for printing. Each annual edition is based on the last HTML version published during the edition's year. Minor corrections, such as
updated URLs, have been made in the SEPB: 2006 Annual Edition

2007 Hollywood Book Festival call for entries

The 2007 Hollywood Book Festival has issued a call for entries to its annual program celebrating books that deserve greater recognition from the film, television, game and multimedia communities. Deadline for submissions is June 25, 2007

Made in Scotland: law making from inspiration to implementation

Made in Scotland: law making from inspiration to implementation: A workshop aimed at front line users of Scottish Parliamentary material or those with an interest in the process. The workshop will concentrate primarily on Scottish Parliamentary material although reference will be made to practices in Westminster - 17 April 2007 - Edinburgh, Scotland

2007 Meeting of the Classification Society of North America

2007 Meeting of the Classification Society of North America - June 7-10, 2007 - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Urbana, Illinois

First Monday - 5 March 2007

First Monday - Volume 12, Number 3 - 5 March 2007 now available

National Library Week 2007

National Library Week (USA) - "National Library Week is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation's libraries, librarians and library workers and to promote library use and support" - April 15-21, 2007

Sports Illustrated will make swimsuit issue available to libraries

Sports Illustrated has decided to make the annual swimsuit issue available to libraries after ALA President Leslie Burger and others expressed their concerns about a decision by Time Inc., Sports Illustrated's parent company, to not mail the issue to institutional subscribers

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

IAML Conference 2007

International Association of Music Libraries Conference 2007 - July 1-6 - Sydney, Australia

Internet Librarian 2007

Internet Librarian 2007 - October 29-31, 2006 - Monterey, CA. Deadline for submissions is March 26, 2007

2007 RUSA ABC-CLIO Online History Award

Faith Jones, head of Literature and Language Collection, Mid-Manhattan Library, the New York Public Library, is the 2007 recipient of the ABC-CLIO Online History Award, administered by the History Section of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association. The award, which consists of a citation and $3,000 donated by ABC-CLIO, is given to encourage, recognize and commend professional achievement in historical reference and research librarianship

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

E-Learn 2007

E-Learn 2007 - World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education - October 15-19, 2007 - Quebec City, Canada

OverDrive Download Audio Book Service tops one million users

OverDrive has announced that it has surpassed one million users of OverDrive download audio books, eBooks, music, and videos. This milestone was reached as a result of patrons and students from over 5,000 libraries, schools, and institutions downloading titles using OverDrive services

Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction

Orange has announced that its prestigious literary sponsorship, formerly the Orange Prize for Fiction, will be known as the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction

New England Journal of Medicine available via EBSCOhost

EBSCO Publishing has recently signed a new agreement with the New England Journal of Medicine to make the journal's content available via MEDLINE with Full Text on the EBSCOhost platform. Full-text coverage of the New England Journal of Medicine will extend back to 1993 (with a 90-day embargo) and will also include embedded image content

DPE On-line questionnaire

"DigitalPreservationEurope is currently carrying out a state of the art review on international competence centres for digital curation and preservation activity and expertise. This report will be used to inform the European Commission of the current landscape in this arena. If you think that your project or institution should be included in our list, we invite you to complete the on-line form. All contributions will be included in the final report submitted to the European Commission. The deadline for submissions is 12:00 on March 23rd, 2007"

The Grey Journal - Spring 2007

The Grey Journal - An International Journal on Grey Literature - Spring 2007 now available

Keystone Library Network implementing WebFeat Enterprise Edition Federated search solution

The Keystone Library Network is implementing a WebFeat Enterprise Edition federated search solution. For 17 participating libraries, including 14 Pennsylvania State System universities, the WebFeat Enterprise Edition solution enables users at each library to simultaneously search a group of shared resources provided by KLN in addition to simultaneously searching the individual library's locally subscribed resources

Gaming in the Library

SirsiDynix Institute Web Seminar: Gaming in the Library with Jenny Levine, Internet Development Specialist and Strategy Guide, American Library Association - March 13, 2007 - Start Time: 12 p.m. EST

This Week in LibraryBlogLand

This Week in LibraryBlogLand - week ending March 11, 2007

D-Lib Magazine March/April 2007

D-Lib Magazine March/April 2007 is now available

Monday, March 12, 2007

E-books and E-content 2007

E-books and E-content 2007: Putting Content in Context - 8 May 2007 - University College London, UK

OIC 2007

OIC 2007: Ontology for the intelligence community: Towards Effective Exploitation and Integration of Intelligence Resources - November 28-29, 2007 - Columbia, MD, USA

Winter 2006-07 Focus newsletter

The Winter 2006-07 Focus newsletter highlights Center for Research Libraries resources and activities to support scholarly research on Eastern and Southeastern Europe. The articles profile the history, resources, and acquisition efforts of the Slavic and East European Microform Project (SEEMP), based at CRL; human rights archiving in the region; and CRL collections and information resources

Sunshine Week

Sunshine Week is a national (United States) initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, non-profits, schools and others interested in the public's right to know

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Galaxy British Book Awards 2007 shortlists

The shortlists for the Galaxy British Book Awards 2007 have been announced. The lists bring together an eclectic mix of literary giants, sports stars, comedians and bestselling mainstream authors. The winners will be announced March 28

Winterson novel 'left at station'

From The BBC: "An unpublished novel by renowned author Jeanette Winterson has been found at an Underground station in south London. The Stone Gods, by the writer of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, is not due to be published until September"

National Book Critics Circle 2006 Awards

The National Book Critics Circle 2006 Awards have been announced

8th Annual TechConnections Conference

The 8th Annual TechConnections Conference - June 11-12, 2007 - Dublin, Ohio

The European Library mini searchbox

The European Library mini searchbox gives direct and centralised access to Europe's national libraries

OCLC welcomes 202 Taiwan libraries to OCLC cooperative

Taiwan has added 202 libraries to the OCLC cooperative as full cataloging, Governing Members

Alternative Careers Survey

Rachel Singer Gordon is working on a book on alternative careers for librarians, and is looking for input from librarians who have pursued nontraditional paths

Coutts offering access to 70,000 eBooks through OASIS

"Coutts is offering unrestricted access to 70,000 eBooks through its OASIS selection and ordering web-based interface. Using OASIS library selectors can now access, read and review any MyiLibrary title and add it to their shopping cart just like any other book"

Google helps terabyte data swaps

From BBC News: "Google is developing a program to help academics around the world exchange huge amounts of data. The firm's open source team is working on ways to physically transfer huge data sets up to 120 terabytes in size..."

Saturday, March 10, 2007

DIGIPRES

The Preservation and Reformatting Section section of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services division of the American Library Association has recently introduced a new listserv dedicated to digital preservation - DIGIPRES

Redesigned SPARC Web Site improves resource access for librarians, authors, and publishers

SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, has reorganized and redesigned its Web site to better serve the scholarly communications community. The site has been refined to facilitate access to the multitude of SPARC resources created for libraries, publishers, authors, and the media

Freebase

"Freebase.com is home to a global knowledge base: a structured, searchable, writeable and editable database built by a community of contributors, and open to everyone. It could be described as a data commons. From Metaweb Technologies"

Friday, March 09, 2007

The Friday Brain-teaser from Xrefer

The Friday Brain-teaser from Xrefer - this week: Letter B. Answers here

1. What is the normal word for an unmarried man?
2. What was the capital of ancient Babylonia in Mesopotamia, the site of the Hanging Gardens?
3. What is the surname of the author who, in his "Peter Pan" wrote: "To die will be an awfully big adventure"?
4. Which song on the Beatles' 1968 "White Album" was originally to have been entitled "I'm Backing Britain" but its eventual title led to the accusation of promoting communism?
5. Name the helmet-like head covering, either knitted or crocheted, named after the village in the Crimea where the Charge of the Light Brigade took place in 1854.
6. Which Indian tree is best known for the production of large aerial roots that are let down from its larger branches and form secondary trunks which give extra support and allow the tree to spread?
7. Name the fifth-largest island in the world - an island of the Northwest Territories, Canada, west of Greenland.
8. What is the English name for the group of terrorists, calling themselves the Rote Armee Faktion (Red Army Faction), who aimed at the violent overthrow of capitalist society in West Germany, until the group disbanded in 1998?
9. Which word means a headscarf tied under the chin, worn by Russian peasant women, and is also used in Russia to mean "an old woman"?
10. What is the surname of the 20th-century painter whose works include "Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion" and "Study after Velazquez"?

Influencing & networking for managers

Influencing & networking for managers: aimed at staff working within library and information services at middle/intermediate management level and above - April 26, 2007 - Manchester, UK

Image Management in Bio and Environmental Sciences: New Directions

Image Management in Bio and Environmental Sciences: New Directions - 31 May, 2007 - Manchester, UK

EThOS to go live

EThOS, the Electronic Theses Online Service, is based on a prototype that was developed by a project team funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), the CURL (Consortium of Research Libraries in the British Isles), the British Library and participating partners. A new two-year funded project, EThOSnet, has now been set up to establish EThOS as a live service. JISC and CURL are delighted to announce their support for the new service which will be run by the British Library on behalf of the UK higher education community and will be developed in partnership with both HE and the JISC

HHMI and Elsevier announce public access agreement

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Elsevier have established an agreement to make author manuscripts of articles published in Elsevier and Cell Press journals publicly available six months following final publication. It takes effect for articles published after September 1, 2007

2007 Congressional Pig Book

Citizens Against Government Waste has released the 2007 Congressional Pig Book. The Pig Book is CAGW's annual compilation of all the pork-barrel projects in the federal budget. The 2007 Pig Book identifies 2,658 pork projects at a cost of $13.2 billion in the Defense and Homeland Security Appropriations Acts for fiscal 2007. Only two of the 11 appropriations bills were enacted by Congress and the remaining nine were subject to a moratorium on earmarks. CAGW has identified $254 billion in pork since 1991

Thursday, March 08, 2007

AMEEL - an Arabic and Middle Eastern electronic library

AMEEL will be a Web-based portal for the study of the Middle East, including its history, culture, development, and contemporary face, and within this portal, will integrate existing scholarly digital content to make such material easier to find and use efficiently and freely. AMEEL will then become an electronic library about the Middle East, that is, a digital collection of information, hopefully as rich and intricate as its subject

The UK Literary Heritage Working Group

The UK Literary Heritage Working Group has announced the launch of its website. Already including a selection of recent acquisitions by UK collecting institutions, recent parliamentary activity and papers relating to the Manuscripts Matter conference held at the British Library in October 2006, the site will continue to be developed and more content added to reflect progress

FreePint Newsletter 225

FreePint Newsletter 225 - 8 March, 2007 - now available

Elsevier Acquires the Beilstein Database

Elsevier has announced the acquisition through its subsidiary MDL Information Systems GmbH, of the Beilstein Database, the world's largest compilation of chemical facts and the premier database in the field of organic chemistry

Caribbean Histories Revealed

Caribbean Histories Revealed, a new online exhibition from The National Archives, was launched 6 March, 2007. The exhibition traces the history of the British Caribbean through Colonial Office records from the 17th century to 1926. From maps and photographs, to letters and petitions, it brings to life over 300 years of life in the Caribbean

WorldCat.org citation feature helps students and researchers

"Item records in WorldCat.org now include a Cite this Item link that provides bibliographic citations in five common styles: APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA and Turabian. Displayed in a separate pop-up window, the citations follow the reference standard for each style..."

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week - March 8, 2007

Celebrating 50 years of the IBM Journals

"Since the first publication of the IBM Journal of Research and Development in 1957 and the IBM Systems Journal in 1962, these Journals have provided descriptions and chronicles of many important advances in information technology and related topics ranging from atoms to business solutions. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the IBM Journals, this report highlights a selection of significant papers published in the Journals, along with brief commentaries. The Journal editors chose papers which were very highly cited in the technical literature, described technologies of historic significance, or provided an important overview of a field"

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

International Scholarly Communications Conference

ALPSP Conference - International Scholarly Communications Conference: The transformation of research communication - 13 April 2007 - London, UK

The Adaptable Repository

The Adaptable Repository - A one-day workshop on new challenges and opportunities for repositories, to be held in association with ARROW (The Australian Research Repositories Online to the World) - May 3, 2007 - University of Sydney, Australia

Recordings by historical figures and musical legends added to the 2006 National Recording Registry

"What do President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, legendary performer and songwriter Eubie Blake, Gershwin Prize-winning musician Paul Simon and The Rolling Stones have in common? On March 6, 2007 Librarian of Congress James H. Billington named sound recordings made by them and 21 others to the National Recording Registry to be preserved for all time"

TechWatch (Technology and Standards Watch)

TechWatch helps keep track of developments in information and communication technologies that might have high impact on the core business of Further and Higher education in five to ten years' time. It commissions reports on specific technologies and provides many links from this site to technology resources elsewhere on the web

Google Book Search adds Bavarian State Library

"We are adding our largest non-English library to the Google Books Library Project, thanks to a new partnership with the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library). Book lovers around the world will soon be able to access the library's public domain works online through Google Book Search, tracing the rich history of German literature through the centuries"

Boucher-OCLC Distinguished ILL Librarian Award

Anne K. Beaubien, Director and Cooperative Access Services and Grants Officer, University Library, University of Michigan, is the 2007 Virginia Boucher-OCLC Distinguished Interlibrary Loan Librarian Award recipient. The award recognizes and honors a librarian for outstanding professional achievement, leadership and contributions to ILL and document delivery

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Information Today March 2007 issues

The March 2007 issues of Computers in Libraries, Information Today, and Searcher, are now available

The World Almanac E-Newsletter - March 2007

The World Almanac E-Newsletter - Volume 07, Number 3 — March 2007 is now available

Digital Curation Centre tutorial

Digital Curation Centre tutorial: Building trust in digital repositories using the DRAMBORA Toolkit - 27 April 2007 - London, UK

Address/Telephone Directories from Central Asia at the Library of Congress

Address/Telephone Directories from Central Asia - "This is a finding aid for telephone directories from the countries of Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It consists of over 60 entries representing the Library of Congress' uncataloged holdings of Soviet and post-Soviet era titles as of January 2007. It is arranged by country, then by city, and then by the year prominently displayed on the cover of the piece. Directories that cover the entire country appear first in the list"

National Library of New Zealand partners with OCLC

The National Library of New Zealand will add some 8 million records and the holdings of 275 libraries to WorldCat. As a result, records of items held in New Zealand libraries will be visible to Web searchers worldwide through the OCLC WorldCat.org service, or through popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo

Swets launches the fully integrated SwetsWise portfolio

Swets has announced the launch of its new, fully integrated, SwetsWise portfolio of products. The central focus of the new portfolio is SwetsWise Subscriptions, which is available in two versions: The Corporate Edition, for end-user ordering, and the Library Edition

Information Research Wiki

Information Research Wiki - "This is an experiment - an attempt to see what readers of Information Research can do with a Wiki."

YLG Conference 2007

The Youth Libraries Group's annual conference 2007: Shout, whisper and sing - Developing a strong voice for children's library services - 14–16 September 2007 - University of Hertfordshire, UK

Wiley-Blackwell to launch Archives of Drug Information

"Wiley-Blackwell have announced the launch of Archives of Drug Information, a new open access, freely available peer-reviewed journal, dedicated to publishing the results of drug studies. This journal will help to address requests for transparency voiced by societies, health care practioners, patients, media, and the government to disclose clinical trial information"

2007 Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship Award winner

Jihyun Kim, graduate student instructor at the University of Michigan School of Information, has been awarded the 2007 Association of College and Research Libraries Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for her proposal, "Faculty Self-Archiving Behavior: Methods and Factors Affecting the Decision to Self-Archive"

ACRL Podcasts

"ACRL Podcasts provide fresh dimensions on the issues and events in academic librarianship. Podcasts are planned for these areas: ACRL Presidential Elections, ACRL Authors & Editors, the ALA Emerging Leaders Program, ACRL Events, ACRL Advocacy, and ACRL How To"

Remote Access documentary

Remote Access - Documentary on distant libraries in Kenya and Peru available on DVD

Monday, March 05, 2007

Reminder: Mashups : A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit

SirsiDynix Institute: Mashups : A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That by Darlene Fichter, Head of the Indigenous Studies Portal and Coordinator of Data Library Services, University of Saskatchewan Library - March 6, 2007

VALA's 14th Biennial Conference

VALA's 14th Biennial Conference, "LIBRARIES / CHANGING SPACES, VIRTUAL PLACES", will be held at the Melbourne Exhibition & Convention Centre in Australia, from 5-7 February 2008

Browse Inside from HarperCollins Publishers

"Browse Inside is a global online initiative of HarperCollins Publishers which offers consumers an in-depth, digital look at books that spark their interest. As plans to roll-out the program continue, consumers will be able to access the HarperCollins Browse Inside page views directly from authors' sites, HarperCollins newsletters, or booksellers' retail Web sites"

Sunday, March 04, 2007

2006 James Patterson PageTurner Awards winners

"James Patterson has announced the 39 winners of the 2006 James Patterson PageTurner Awards, who will receive cash prizes totaling $500,000. Among the winners are libraries, schools, bookstores, and innovative individuals and organizations that go to extraordinary lengths to spread the joy of books and reading across the country (United States)"

Darwin's "Origin of Species" from LibriVox

LibriVox volunteers have just completed a public domain audio recording of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Free to download, copy, and share. It's unabridged and over twenty-four hours long

Saturday, March 03, 2007

The Bedford Hours: Owners and Illuminators

"A fine art facsimile edition of one of the greatest medieval illuminated manuscripts in existence is published by the British Library, in association with Faksimile Verlag Luzern, on 23 March 2007. The publication coincides with the opening of a new British Library exhibition, The Bedford Hours: Owners and Illuminators, which will be on display 23 March–2 July 2007"

Semantic Image Retrieval - The User Perspective

Semantic Image Retrieval - The User Perspective - This event will bring together members of the practitioner and research communities in image retrieval. A number of leading members of both communities will be giving presentations, and the programme features a keynote address by Corinne Jörgensen, a world authority on theory and practice in image retrieval - 26-27 March, 2007 - University of Brighton, UK

A Poet in the Family: The Coleridge Archive

"A fascinating insight into the character and behaviour of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge is revealed through his own notebooks, together with journals, correspondence and reminiscences from family and friends in a small display at the British Library from 27 February–27 April 2007"

Resource of the Month from Ovid

"Each month, Ovid provides you with the opportunity to "test drive" a sampling of our content, tools and services - FREE of charge - through our Resource of the Month program. A different combination of resources is offered around the first business day of each month, so be sure to check back regularly to see what new resources are available". March's Resource of the Month: GeoRef and INSPEC

21st Annual Preservation Conference

21st Annual Preservation Conference - Managing the Intangible: Creating, Storing and Retrieving Digital Surrogates of Historical Materials - April 30-May 1, 2007 - East Adelphi, Maryland, USA

1901 and 1911 Census digitisation project - The National Archives of Ireland

"The National Archives of Ireland has arranged for the digitisation, indexing and contextualisation of its most popular records, the census records for 1901 and 1911. The resulting website will contain images of the forms for each household and institution, which will be indexed by name (all names), townland/street, age and sex. There will also be illustrated information on what life was like in Ireland in the early days of the last century. The site will be free to access, with no charge to use the indexes or view the images. The first phase of the project, Dublin City and County 1911, is to be launched in Autumn 2007."

SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #107

SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #107 - March 2 2007 is now available

JISC and publishers to collaborate on "e-books observatory'"

JISC is calling on the publishers of e-books to help develop an e-book observatory which for the first time will gather much-needed evidence on the use of a greatly under-used but potentially enormously important resource

Friday, March 02, 2007

The Friday Brain-teaser from Xrefer

The Friday Brain-teaser from Xrefer - this week: Comedians. Answers here

1. Which comedian co-wrote the TV shows "The Office" and "Extras" with Stephen Merchant?
2. Which US comedian, born Leonard Alfred Schneider, was imprisoned for obscenity in 1961 and was refused permission to enter Britain in 1963? His autobiography is entitled "How To Talk Dirty and Influence People".
3. Which English comedian starred on TV in "Blackadder" and in the 1997 film "Bean"?
4. Which US film comedian starred in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", "Hans Christian Andersen" and "The Court Jester"?
5. Which comedian first achieved prominence in "Beyond the Fringe" and invented the stage character E. L. Wisty?
6. Which American comedian became the first African-American actor to star in a weekly television dramatic series and later played obstetrician Cliff Huxtable in his own show?
7. Which comedian's real name was Alfred Hawthorne Hill?
8. Which US comedian appeared in the films "The Bank Dick" and "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break" and also played Micawber in the 1935 film of "David Copperfield"?
9. Which Danish-born pianist and comedian published an autobiography called "My Favourite Intermissions"? His Broadway show, "Comedy in Music", was the longest-running one-person show in US theatrical histor
10. Which US comedian performed as a comedy team with his wife, Gracie Allen?

Digital Humanities Summer Institute

The Digital Humanities Summer Institute provides an environment ideal to discuss, to learn about, and to advance skills in new computing technologies influencing the work of those in the Arts, Humanities and Library communities - June 18-22 - University of Victoria, Canada

Average prices of British and USA academic books

LISU, at Loughborough University, UK, has announced the publication of the latest editions of average prices of British and US academic books

The Library of Congress - Women's History Month

In celebrating women's history this March, the Library of Congress has launched a new online resource page featuring its rich women's collections, from suffragist profiles to veterans' oral histories; stories on major historical figures; ready-to-use lesson plans for teachers; collection guides; and online exhibitions

Gershwin Prize for Popular Song

Paul Simon will be the recipient of the first annual Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Named in honor of the legendary George and Ira Gershwin, this newly created award recognizes the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world's culture. The prize will be given annually to a composer or performer whose lifetime contributions exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins

Shelfari

Shelfari "is an interactive social media site for book lovers. Using Shelfari, you can create a personal shelf of your books, see what your friends are reading, get and give recommendations for what to read next, create book lists, and even share your opinion on a book with friends or the growing Shelfari community"

The ten books you can't live without

"For World Book Day's tenth anniversary, we have been asking you to share with us the ten books you can't live without, and we have now compiled a list of your most life-enhancing reads. Our survey to find the ten books the nation cannot live without has revealed that classics are still the most essential reads, with Pride and Prejudice topping the poll, and the Brontë sisters appearing, along with Charles Dickens and George Orwell. JRR Tolkein's fantasy trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, came in second, with The Bible also shown to be still relevant to people coming in at sixth"

World Book Day 2007

World Book Day 2007 took place March 1, 2007.

Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal. Nuremberg. ("Blue Series")

Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal. Nuremberg. ("Blue Series"), Nuremberg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946. Released by the Library of Congress on February 28 2007

Thursday, March 01, 2007

My Own Mag archive

RealityStudio presents a complete archive of the influential UK magazine from the 1960's, My Own Mag. The magazine was edited by Jeff Nuttall, and features a number of pieces from William Burroughs. My own contribution appears in issue #7

Managing the library and archive environment

The National Preservation Office, UK, has announced the latest title in its series of Preservation Guidance leaflets, Managing the library and archive environment

Netskills workshops

Netskills has announced its programme of workshops for March 2007 to July 2007

New JISCmail list LIS-BLOGGERS

LIS-BLOGGERS is a new JISCmail list for UK librarians and information professionals who create, edit or manage blogs for current awareness or user education. It aims to be a discussion forum for the growing number of information professionals who are developing innovative services using blogs and other Web 2.0 technologies

Archives Hub Collections of the Month, March 2007

Archives Hub Collections of the Month, March 2007 : Waterways - "This month we take a trip along Britain's canals and inland waterways, highlighting descriptions for the papers of engineers and entrepreneurs, waterway workers and enthusiasts. There are also links to related websites, including those of waterways and museums"

Royal Society Library public events - Spring 2007

The Royal Society's spring events programme begins on 16 March with a talk by author John Gribbin on Robert FitzRoy, Darwin's captain on HMS Beagle. Other topics in the series include the early days of ballooning, polar exploration, scientific instrument maker Jesse Ramsden, the Royal Society's links with India in the 18th and 19th centuries, and some of the more curious scientific ideas devised by the Society's early Fellows. The events will take place in the Library reading rooms on Fridays in March and April

IMF Staff Papers

Palgrave Macmillan and the International Monetary Fund have announced that Palgrave Macmillan will publish IMF Staff Papers, on behalf of the IMF. IMF Staff Papers is one of the leading international economics and finance peer-reviewed research journals and has been published since 1950

National Women's History Month 2007

National Women's History Month 2007 theme, "Generations of Women Moving History Forward", presents special opportunities to highlight some critically important historic events, including the 50th anniversary of the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the 30th anniversary of the National Women's Conference in Houston, Texas

The European Research Council

"The European Research Council is the first pan-European funding body set up to support investigator-driven frontier research. The main aim of the newly-established body is to stimulate scientific excellence by supporting and encouraging the very best, truly creative scientists, engineers and scholars to be adventurous and take risks in their research. The scientists should go beyond established frontiers of knowledge and the boundaries of discipline..."

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week - March 1, 2007

Thomson Learning adopts Sakai Open Source Collaboration and Learning Environment

"Thomson Learning has adopted the Sakai open source collaboration and learning environment for supporting the delivery of world-class learning products and services. In becoming a commercial affiliate of the Sakai Foundation, Thomson Learning has committed to assisting the open source community in the shared goal of creating a robust learning environment that combines technology, content and services to meet the evolving needs of higher education. This is an expansion of the company's support for open standards and integration with all learning environments"